POSTED BY MARTIN KICH

The image is from Popular Science [https://www.popsci.com/science/].

The current home page features an article on the current fires, “California’s Forest Management Isn’t the Problem” [https://www.popsci.com/forest-management-california-fires].

Writing for the Washington Post, Susan Svrluga has reported on the controversy surrounding a shelter-in-place order at Pepperdine University:

Pepperdine University’s 3,600 undergraduates were ordered to shelter in place Friday as a wildfire closed in on the Malibu campus. The Woolsey fire has forced evacuations, but Pepperdine students were urged to shelter in one of two buildings on campus — a decision that frightened some parents and students despite reassurances from the university that it was advised by fire officials. . . .

Overnight, debate raged over whether the students were in the safest possible spot — or trapped. . . .

It seems counterintuitive, said Connie Horton, the vice president for student affairs, but the Los Angeles County Fire Department supports the shelter-in-place plan as the safest course. “We have lived it a number of times over the years, practiced it, rehearsed it, trained on it.”

The university has followed the same procedure since 1993, according to a social media message from the school’s president.

Campus buildings are constructed with fire-resistant materials, according to the university website explaining the practice. School roads provide fire breaks, brush is cleared every year to 200 feet or more from buildings, and with a limited number of ways on and off campus, roads can quickly become congested and dangerous as wildfires shift unpredictably.

Susan Svrluga’s complete article is available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2018/11/10/pepperdine-students-sheltered-place-wildfire-raged-around-malibu-campus/?utm&utm_term=.acc445ee0ca8.